Netanyahu Stays Neck-and-Neck Before Tuesday Vote as 19 of 30 Years in Power Define Israel
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Oct 24
Netanyahu Stays Neck-and-Neck Before Tuesday Vote as 19 of 30 Years in Power Define Israel
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Oct 24
Summary
Tuesday’s Israeli election remains centered on Benjamin Netanyahu, with polls showing his bloc and the anti-Netanyahu camp running roughly even despite the prime minister’s long incumbency and mounting controversies.
Netanyahu has kept the race on his terrain by framing it as a choice between the right and “Palestine,” while opponents such as former army chief Gadi Eisenkot campaign less on ideology than on character, integrity and ending the “Bibi” era.
His resilience comes despite the October 7, 2023 security failure, an unresolved war in Gaza that has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians, a divisive judicial overhaul push, the Qatargate scandal and his ongoing corruption trial.
That deadlock could still shift on coalition math and turnout: anti-Netanyahu parties are forecast to outperform his bloc but may miss a Knesset majority, while expatriate Israelis are flying home to vote in a contest that could hinge on 1 of 120 seats.
Beyond the seat count, the race has become a referendum on whether Israel’s politics can move past a leader who has dominated them for 19 of the past 30 years.